The best team ever to leave NZ
by Dan Retief | 10 June 2009 (13:16)
The years immediately before and after World War II ironically represented a golden age for Springbok rugby.
A wonderful generation of players – including the like of Philip Nel, Danie Craven, Boy Louw, Gerry Brand, Lucas Strachan, Dai Williams, Tony Harris, Louis Babrow and Freddie Turner – toured New Zealand in 1937 and to this day they remain the only Springbok team to win a series in that country.
After losing the first international in Wellington the Springboks squared the series in the second in Christchurch and then went on to secure South Africa’s greatest moment (up to then!) by scoring five tries, when they were worth only three points, in an emphatic 17 points to 6 victory over the All Blacks in the last test in Auckland.
When Nel’s men boarded the boat that carried them home they were afforded the ultimate compliment by being described as “the best team ever to leave the shores of New Zealand!”
So it was a formidable challenge confronting Sam Walker’s Lions of 1938 for, like Joe Louis, the Springboks were now the outright champions of the world.
Walker’s men, according to Clem Thomas in his “Official History of the British and Irish Lions,” were taking on not only some of the best South African players of all time, but also some of the best rugby brains they had ever produced.
Danie Craven was named as captain of the Springboks and his 2IC was the legendary Boy Louw, the most-capped Springbok of his time and a huge personality in every sense. Famous for his malapropisms Thomas relates one from the lore of “Oom” Boy. Looking at a sloppy lineout he is said to have exclaimed: “Why you stand so crooked? Can’t you stand in a straight stripe!?”
Craven had made a huge name for himself in New Zealand with his dive-pass and cerebral approach to the game and at the age of 27 he was made captain in what were to be his last test matches – his career being cut short by the outbreak of World War II.
Sammy Walker, an Ulster prop who played against Benny Osler’s 1931/32 touring side, led a team sans a number of major British and Irish players of the time but the side nevertheless included some who would leave deep footprints in Vivian Jenkins, who would become a much respected writer on the game, Harry McKibben of Scotland and Bill Clement of Wales who in time to come would become associates of Craven at the International Rugby Board.
The first test, at Ellis Park, turned out to be a classic before a then record crowd of 36,000 spectators. Craven would rate the Springboks’ 26-12 victory as one of the best the men in green-and-gold had been involved in.
The game was also memorable for some prodigious goal-kicking from Brand and Jenkins – Brand’s tally including a huge dropped goal from deep inside his own half that broke the spirit of the tourists.
Sadly it was to be Brand’s last test. He was injured before the final two tests of the series and his career was brought to end by the outbreak of World War II.
The second test was played in a heat-wave in Port Elizabeth which obviously suited the Springboks to a tee and they won 19-3 to clinch the series.
The Lions travelled from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town by boat, nursing a long list of injuries. They went into the game as underdogs but the old bulldog spirit was to the fore as their re-jigged line-up, with many players out of position, triumphed 21-16 to end the tour with their heads held high.
Legend has it that after Craven won his third toss in a row – using the ‘lucky’ 10 shilling coin presented to him by the Mayor of Johannesburg before the first test – he elected to play with the wind on the advice of the Newlands groundsman who had assured him that the tempest would drop.
However the gale continued to blow and the Lions made the most of it to overturn a halftime deficit of 3-13 and run out 21-16 victors.
It was to be the end of all international rugby for a golden group of Springboks. By the time the war was over most of the team had lost the best years of their life which meant that Tony Harris had his rugby career end at the age of 22, Freddie Turner, Flappie Lochner and D.O. ‘Dai’ Williams at 24, Ben du Toit at 25, Ebbo Bastard at 26 and Jan Lotz and Danie Craven at 27.
It would take 17 years before another Lions side visited South Africa in the shape of Robin Thompson’s gifted 1955 side.
However the ravages of war would not rob South Africa of its rugby prowess.
With the twin threats of Adolf Hitler’s fascism and Japanese imperialism having been quelled South Africa could not wait to get back to the rugby field and did so with a bang by beating the 1949 All Blacks 4-0 in a home series (an outcome that still rankles all New Zealanders) and then going on tour to Europe in 1951/52 and recording the ultimate “Grand Slam” by beating Scotland, the famous 44-0 win at Murrayfield, Ireland, Wales, England and France.
Next on the menu for a fabulous line-up of Springboks would be the 1955 Lions – an equally talented group who no less a figure than Danie Craven in later years described as perhaps the best ever touring side to visit South Africa. More about that in the next column tracing the history of the Lions on Safari.
